Public Sector Development Programme: Out of Rs800 billion only Rs12.05 billion allocated for province: Qaim Ali Shah

Karachi, May 30, 2016 (PPI-OT):Presiding over a review meeting of the proposed new Public Sector Development Programme (PSDP 2016-17) of the federal government, Sindh Chief Minister Syed Qaim Ali Shah expressed his surprise and sorrow that out of Rs800 billion only Rs12.05 billion allocation has been proposed for Sindh. “This is against the commitments and announcements by the prime minister and an injustice with the people of Sindh.”

The meeting was attended by Senior Minister for Finance and Development Syed Murad Ali Shah, Principal Secretary Alamuddin Bullo, Additional Chief Secretary (Dev) Mohammad Waseem, Secretary Finance Sohail Rajput and other. Senior Minister for Finance and P and D Syed Murad briefing the chief minister said that the federal government has proposed a Rs800 billion PSDP for next financial year.

On this the chief minister asked him about the number of on-going schemes of Sindh and their allocation. Syed Murad Shah said that only 25 schemes with an allocation of Rs12.05 billion being executed by Sindh government have been included in the proposed PSDP. The chief minister said that it is a peanut and injustice with Sindh.

He said the prime minister had announced rehabilitation of Guddu Barrage and starting Motorway from Hyderabad to Sukkur but “sorry to say his announcements have been ignored,” he showed his surprise. Talking about New schemes in the next PSDP, Syed Murad Shah said that the federal government has included 180 new schemes in its next PSDP, out of them only 11 are Sindh-based for which Rs120.77 billion have been earmarked which constitutes 6 percent of the amount.

It may be noted that the in the next proposed PSDP the federal government has included 180 schemes of Rs644543.8315 million against which Rs120.77 billion allocation has been proposed. The province/area wise breakup of the schemes and allocation is quite surprising. Punjab has been given 26 schemes of Rs140100.543 million against which of Rs16599.025 million funds have been allocated which constitute 14 percent of the cost. Sindh has been given only 11 schemes of Rs130475.471 million with an allocation of Rs6550.881 million which comes to 6 percent of the amount.

KPK has 18 schemes Rs115927.99 million with an allocation of Rs2721 billion which is 10 percent of the cost. Balochistan has 28 schemes of Rs43439.715 million with an allocation of Rs28356.403 million which is 16 percent of the cost. Gilgit-Baltistan has 7 schemes (of Rs15394.5465 m) with an allocation of Rs1100 million which is four percent of the amount, AJK has got two schemes of Rs 3733.453 m against which Rs765 million have been allocated. It comes to one percent of the cost, Islamabad has been given 88 schemes of Rs195472.113 million with an allocation of Rs64678.408 million which comes to 49 percent of the cost.

The chief minister said that six new schemes of Sindh with an adequate allocation be included in the next PSDP. They are Indus Highway-Jamshoro Sehwan Dual Carriageway; Sukkur Barrage rehabilitation Project, Un-gradation of flood infrastructure, short term mitigation and preparedness measures to counter sea intrusion; planting of 25 million trees to combat climate change effect in Sindh, Lining of KB Feeder Upper Canal for water Supply to Karachi city.

He said that he would urge the federal government to enhance the allocation of some important schemes. The federal government has allocated only Rs500 million for K-IV which may be increased to Rs5.3 billion so that it could be completed within two years. This is a Rs25.551 billion scheme in which federal and provincial government have to share 50: 50 cost.

Sindh chief minister said that Makhi Farash Link Canal project (Phase-II) is meant to supply water to Thar Coal to meet the requirement of Thar coal project. The total cost of the project is Rs10.61 billion with equal cost sharing by federal and provincial governments. “I would urge the federal government to enhance its proposed allocation of Rs50 million to Rs2 billion,” he said.

Additional Chief Secretary Mohammad Wassem said that the federal government has proposed only Rs10 million for Lining of Distributaries and Minors it should be enhanced to Rs3 billion. He said that a meager amount of Rs1 billion has been kept as Normal Annual Development Programme (emergent flood scheme), PSDP 992 for the whole country, whereas Sindh has submitted many important schemes costing more than Rs16 billion.

The Chief Minister said that this allocation has been kept for whole of Pakistan and it should be enhanced to Rs10 billion. “I had discussed this requirement with the prime minister but I don’t know why meager amount has been proposed,” he recalled. ACS (Dev) Mr Waseem told the chief minister that the share of Sindh government in PSDP for vertical programmes going on in the provincial comes to Rs3.93 billion against which only Rs1.76 billion was released.

The vertical programmes, include expanded program on immunization, prevention and control of Influenza; prevention and control of Blindness; hepatitis, TB Control programme, Malaria and others. The chief minister said that the Sindh government has provided Rs1.922 billion as bridge financing for vertical programmes of health department for which “I would urge the federal government to reimburse. Moreover, the federal government has to reimburse Rs842.590 million of Hyderabad package.